The grand ballroom where the victory party is being held is surprisingly small. More than half of the space in the room is taken up by a massive platform holding dozens of television cameras. The rest of the room will only be able to hold a couple of hundred people for tonight's victory party, and it is already overflowing. Drunk New Yorkers are spilling down stairs, waiting in line for escalators, jamming themselves into elevators, all waiting to get a glimpse of their new senator.

There is an old adage in politics: Book a small room, so it always looks full. But Clinton took that conventional wisdom to the extreme. The grand ballroom felt like a Britney Spears appearance in a shopping mall -- except that the New Yorkers were a lot more intoxicated than teenyboppers and the bouncers were all Secret Service agents. Meanwhile, more than 100 reporters tried to weave their way through the crowd, flashing their pink and yellow credentials, many of them pecking away dutifully at laptops and barking into cellphones.

"She's running this party like she ran healthcare," barked an irritated reporter stuck downstairs in the media filing center.

The scene was something to behold. There was an open microphone, hundreds of adoring Democrats crammed into the room, the president of the United States was on the podium -- and he didn't say a word.

Instead he stood next to daughter Chelsea and watched his wife thank the entire state of New York, seemingly name by name, during her acceptance speech. "We started this great effort on a sunny July morning on Pat and Liz Moynihan's beautiful farm. And 62 counties, 16 months, three debates, two opponents and six black pantsuits later, because of you, here we are," she said.

As for her opponent, Rep. Rick Lazio, he was gracious in defeat, doing all he could to calm the crowd at the Roosevelt Hotel who seemed to still want blood. "I feel like the Mets," Lazio said. "We came in second."

No matter what happens in the excruciatingly close presidential race Tuesday, New Yorkers have made history. Any notion that this was just another Senate race vanished Tuesday as the media hive entered full swarm. Soon after the polls closed in New York, at 9 p.m., the networks called the race for Clinton, naming her the Empire State's next U.S. senator.

The battle is now over, and the Clintons have emerged victorious. This year, it fell to Hillary to carry on the Clinton name, which has appeared on ballots since the late 1970s. While Clinton serves out his last 10 weeks in office, his wife is no longer first lady. Tonight she is Madame Senator.

Though the final spread was still unknown, it was substantial enough for networks to call the race precisely at 9 p.m. According to exit polls reported by New York TV stations, Rick Lazio never made a case for why people should vote for him. Sixty-eight percent of his supporters were voting "against Hillary Clinton."

And not surprisingly, it was women who rallied to Clinton's side. According to CNN exit polls, 58 percent of New York women cast their votes for the first lady.

But after the war is won, how will the victor handle the spoils? Is Hillary ready for the Senate? And is the Senate ready for Hillary?

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